"Don't hurt people and don't take their stuff" - Matt Kibbe

3/31/09

Global Warming

"Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than fighting climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear."
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA, NOVEMBER 19, 2008

The Cato Institute says "In fact, many scientists disagree with the "facts," their certainty, and their interpretation. Over 100 of them have signed the statement that appears in the Cato Institute's newspaper ad."

Whatever you may think about the issue, one thing is certainly beyond dispute, it's "disputable".

Again, With all due respect , Mr President

With all due respect Mr. President

"There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy."
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA, JANUARY 9, 2009

Politicians keep making big statements that just aren't true. (Also called lying) And people keep giving them a pass by saying, "Well, it's just politics, everyone knows they exaggerate". It's that kind of thinking that has gotten us into lots of trouble in the past. Its way past the time we start to hold people accountable for what they say. Lately the CATO INSTITUTE has been doing just that with full page ads in major newspapers. Three cheers for the Cato people.

Hundreds of distinguished economists signed that full page ad to do their part to keep people from swallowing this tripe.

Full Page Ad

Milton Friedman

Here is a short clip from the past that addresses some current rantings from people like Barney Frank who are desperately trying to distract people from their role in the financial meltdown by talking about greed and even proposing government controls on all salaries .
Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was one of the clearest thinking people in the country for many decades. I still mourn his passing.
But it's not about the people involved, Friedman or Frank or anyone else. It's about the concepts being discussed on this short clip.

3/30/09

GM- Government Motors

The Government effectively runs GM now and today the news arrived that they fired the CEO. The President of the United States also announced that hereafter the US government will guarantee the auto warrantees of that company.
I have a question, since they are standing behind the warrantees, who will decide what's covered?
I suggest all repairs on all parts and labor for all cars forever.
(As long as it is performed by UAW workers of course)
Another benefit would be, if they are purposely manufactured poorly, all the repairs will stimulate the economy!
Good idea?

3/29/09

A Pro-Choice President?

Recently I was reading an article that described the President as “pro choice”. Now, of course I understood the reference was to his support for abortion on demand, but it strikes me as more than odd that an entire political ideology, not just this President, describes itself by that terminology even though its adherents are probably among the least pro-choice group in this country.
By my observations, on almost any other topic, they are opposed to individual choice.

Let’s contemplate just a few major philosophic issues of the day;

Government directed health care, which will prohibit individual care providers and consumers from exercising their right to make their own arrangements between themselves is one of the highest priorities of these “pro-choice” advocates. No choice on that one.

Government mandated retirement system, aka “Social Security”. Sorry, no way to opt out. No choice on that one.

Agreement between two parties concerning compensation for services rendered. Sorry, government will decide what is too much or too little, not the people involved. No choice on that one.

I bet you can think of hundreds of other things upon which these same folks advocate either no choice or restricted choice. The next time someone tells you they are Pro-choice, you might ask them, on what issue?

That’s my opinion on the Pro-Choice description. Maybe we should just call things what they are, in this case, Pro-abortion on demand.

Do we have a right to our own information?

If I told you that a government safety agency was in possession of information, which we paid them to compile, and the information could have a bearing on your personal safety, but the government would not release it because they feared that people might become hysterical if they knew, (the Chicago Tribune's description) you might think it concerned a deadly new health threat, or national security, or perhaps even flying saucers.

If you did, you would be incorrect.

The real story tells a great deal about how the citizens are perceived by their government.
Namely, they perceive us as children.

Here's the story, carried in the Chicago Tribune, the Denver Post and a few other publications. It's nowhere near the front page. That's one way to tell it might actually be important.

FAA stays hush-hush when bird hits plane
By Michael J. Sniffen
The Associated Press
Posted: 03/28/2009 12:30:00 AM MDT


WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to keep secret from travelers its vast records on where and how often commercial planes are damaged by hitting flying birds. The government agency argued that some carriers and airports would stop reporting incidents for fear the public would misinterpret the data and hold it against them. The reporting is voluntary; the FAA rejected a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation 10 years ago to mandate it.
The agency's formal secrecy proposal came just after FAA officials said they were going to release the huge database to The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Sen. Chuck Schumer and fellow New York Democrat Rep. John Hall, vice chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, wrote administration officials urging them to abandon the proposal. "There's no reason to make . . . the causes of other accidents public and not this," Schumer said Friday. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told the FAA he would review any change.
After a multiple bird strike forced a US Airways jet to ditch in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, AP requested access to the bird-strike database, which contains more than 100,000 reports of strikes that have been voluntarily submitted since 1990.